Daily Mail - 07.08.2019

Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 7, 2019 Page 19

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I’ll make trains run

on time vows Shapps

Rail season ticket costs could rise by £100

INFLATION-busting fare increases will push
up many season tickets by more than £100
in January.
Rail fares rise in line with the Retail Price

Index inflation measure – the figure will
be published next week and economists
predict it will be 2.7 to 2.9 per cent.
RPI is typically higher than the Govern-

ment’s preferred measure – the Con-

sumer Price Index – which the Bank of

England says will be 1.8 per cent in July.

If prices rise 2.7 per cent, season tickets

to London from Guildford and St Albans –

already costing more than £3,800 – will go

up another £103. Those from Oxford could

see a £142 rise from £5,256 to £5,398.

The Campaign for Better Transport’s

Darren Shirley told the Evening Standard:

‘Next year’s rise will come as a blow to

passengers already paying thousands to

endure overcrowding, delays and trains

that fail to stop at stations as scheduled.’

By Transport Editor

New Transport Secretary’s pledge to commuters

THE fight to make trains
more reliable after years

of declining punctuality is

the new Transport Secre-

tary’s ‘absolute priority’.
Grant Shapps says he is
determined to help rail com-
muters and is promising a
‘consumer-orientated revo-
lution’ at his department.
The former Tory party chair-
man has instructed officials to
work with Network Rail on the
main causes of delays and has
asked Network Rail chief
Andrew Haines to help him.
As a commuter Mr Shapps,
who replaced the much-derided
Chris Grayling, said operators
do not understand the impact
of disruption.
He added: ‘It is my absolute
priority to make the trains more
reliable. The railways have long
thought “we might not be run-
ning the trains on time but at
least we’re compensating pas-
sengers so they’re no worse off ”.
But that’s not true. What they
don’t get is the real life upset

This includes signal failures,

weather, suicides, trespassers

and engineering works. The rest

are caused by strikes, technical

problems and staff shortages –

which are the operator’s fault.

Mr Shapps’ constituents in

Welwyn Hatfield, Hertfordshire,

have among the worst railways,

served by Thameslink and

Great Northern, both operated

by Govia Thameslink Railway.

Mr Shapps last year called for

Govia Thameslink Railway to

be stripped of its franchise.

He said some services have

fewer trains, stopping at fewer

stations since the new timeta-

ble and that other MPs have

reported similar experiences.

Mr Shapps said: ‘It shouldn’t

be acceptable that points just

fail, overhead lines just sag, and

people don’t turn up for work.’

Graham Stringer, of the Com-

mons transport committee,

said: ‘Mr Shapps is almost

bound to do better than the last

secretary of state.

‘But unless he is prepared to

fundamentally alter the system

and scrap franchising he doesn’t

stand a chance.’

Comment – Page 16

By James Salmon
Transport Editor

‘I love the costumes, the music and the mystery of who on EARTH the celebrities are’

the disruption causes – missing

a meeting or not getting home

in time to pick up your children.

This has a real impact on lives.

‘I don’t think the Department

for Transport has been focused

on consumers. I want a con-

sumer-orientated revolution at

the DFT.’

Train punctuality has fallen

for seven years running. Last

year one in seven trains were

late. This compares with less

than one in ten in 2011-12.

Mr Shapps said: ‘We need to

find what are the leading 20 per

cent of reasons that cause 80

per cent of delays on the trains.

We have agreed to work together

on the infrastructure, with the

train operating companies, to

really start to tackle the stuff

that makes trains late.’

A new timetable caused chaos

for millions last summer.

Services were also hit by the

weather, strikes, and infrastruc-

ture problems, including signals

and overhead power cables.

Sixty per cent of delays are

outside rail operators’ control,

mainly down to Network Rail.

PRINCE Harry’s former

influential private

secretary Ed Lane Fox –

once described by Meghan

as a ‘godsend’– has joined PR firm Freuds.

With a string of recent PR mishaps,

including the handling of Archie’s arrival

and christening, the £2.4million taxpayer

contribution to Frogmore, as well as

Harry’s ‘climate change’ helicopter ride,

shouldn’t the Sussexes send an SOS to

Ed to come back?

NICOLA Sturgeon describes her conversa-

tions with Theresa May as ‘pretty soul-

destroying and torturous’. She added

that even a compliment about the former

PM’s ‘fantastic pair of shoes’ backfired,

explaining: ‘I could see in her eyes that

she didn’t have an answer in the script for

this.’ Perhaps facing babbling Nicola,

polite Theresa couldn’t get a word

in edgeways.

GOOD and bad news for Channel 4’s Jon

Snow. Ofcom has ruled he did not break

broadcasting rules after saying he had

‘never seen so many white people in one

place’ at a pro-Brexit rally in March. And

the grim tidings? He’s just lost his private

basement dressing room at ITN HQ,

where Channel 4 News is made.

ECO-campaigner Livia

Giuggioli, pictured,

was at husband Colin

Firth’s side at the

Oscars in 2010, recall-

ing: ‘I wore recycled

plastic bottles on the

red carpet, I wore

recycled fishing net

fibre made with pine-

apple waste. You

name it, I’ve done the strangest things.’

Careful Colin, don’t stand too near the

recycling bin!

RESPONDING to the backlash against

his suggestion he was due a hike in his

£1.75million pay, Gary Lineker labels his

critics ‘numpties’ – stupid or ineffectual

people. Surely the real numpties are the

Broadcasting House wallahs who’ve

made him the BBC’s highest earner?

THE Duchess of Cornwall won’t be wear-

ing fake tan when she dons her kilt at

Birkhall and Balmoral this month. She’s

been sunning herself at the Rothschild

family villa in Kerasia, Corfu, before her

annual Scottish sojourn with Prince

Charles. Man the brollies!

OLD Etonian Damian Lewis, star of

Billions, tells The Lady magazine he and

wife Helen McCrory don’t need much

money, explaining: ‘As long as there’s

enough to go on a couple of nice holidays

and keep the kids in private school... and

we can go to the theatre and eat in nice

restaurants, we’re pretty happy.’ Hardly

bliss on a shoestring.

OLDIE editor Harry Mount, an amateur

birdwatcher, confides: ‘I’m sad that we

don’t get many birds in our Fitzrovia

office although Harold Pinter’s son, Dan-

iel Brand, did once write a letter to us

addressed to the Great Tits of Great Titch-

field Street – our office address.’ Like

father, like son.

Ephraim

Hardcastle

To order a print of this Paul Thomas cartoon or one by Pugh, visit Mailpictures.newsprints.co.uk or call 020 7566 0360.

A TRANSPORT minister blasted

a ‘smirking’ guard who told

a train to depart despite

seeing him running for it.

George Freeman was left

stranded for an hour yester-

day because the 9.09 Greater

Anglia service from Cam-

bridge to Attleborough was

not held up for him.

He said he was one of five

passengers who ‘sprinted’

along the platform after a

connecting service from

London was delayed.

The Mid Norfolk MP, who

was made a transport minis-

ter by Boris Johnson last

month, wrote on Twitter

that the guard ‘smirked and

ignored us’.

Greater Anglia apologised

and accepted ‘there should

have been some discretion’.

Stranded minister’s fury

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